A new dawn offensive by the M23 armed group and Rwandan forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) shows that its unilaterally declared ceasefire is a “ploy”, the Congolese government said Wednesday.
“This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy,” DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.
The M23 rebels and Rwandan troops launched a new offensive early Wednesday, security and humanitarian sources said, a day after a humanitarian “ceasefire” unilaterally announced by the armed group was to take effect.
Intense clashes broke out at dawn between the M23 and its Rwandan backers and Congolese armed forces, the sources said.
In more than three years of fighting between the parties, half a dozen ceasefires and truces have been declared, before being systematically broken.
The DRC’s foreign minister on Wednesday blasted the lack of international action over the offensive in the east of the country.
“We see a lot of declarations but we don’t see actions,” Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists after meeting her Belgian counterpart in Brussels.
The Kenyan presidency announced on Monday that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame would attend a joint extraordinary summit of the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.
International Criminal Court prosecutors said Wednesday they were monitoring the situation in the country.
“The Office (of the prosecutor) is closely following current events, including the grave escalation of violence over the past weeks in eastern DRC, in particular in and around the provincial capital of North Kivu, Goma,” it said in a statement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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